This invention relates to processing incoming network frames.
Networks enable devices to quickly exchange information over great distances. Typically, information travels across a network inside network frames, also known as packets. A network frame contains a destination address (the frame destination) and a source address (the frame source). A network frame reaches its destination by winding its way through different computers in the network. Frames can carry nearly any kind of information including e-mail, Internet Web pages, and even real-time voice and video data.
In devices such as personal computers and set-top boxes, a general-purpose processor (e.g., a CPU) usually handles each incoming frame. As network communication grows in importance (e.g., Internet based applications), these general-purpose processors devote increasing resources to frame handling, sometimes at the expense of other tasks.